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MAN MOUNTAIN

SPANISH TRAIL RUNNER KILIAN JORNET HAS RUN UP MOUNTAINS LIKE THE MATTERHORN AND MONT BLANC IN RECORD TIME AND NOW HAS MOUNT EVEREST IN HIS SIGHTS. THE GLOBAL RUNNING ICON OPENS UP ABOUT THE PHILOSOPHY, TRAINING AND PSYCHOLOGY THAT POWER HIS EXTRAORDINARY EFFORTS

PROFILE

Words Mark Bailey Photography Strava

Kilian Jornet is arguably the best all round endurance athlete in the world. A life of stamina-boosting adventures, divided between trail running in the summer and ski mountaineering in the winter, has equipped the 29-year-old Spanish runner with a resting heart rate of 34 beats per minute (two to three times lower than the human norm), just 8% body fat (less than half that of an average man of his age), and a VO2 max of 85-90ml/min/kg (double that of a typical gym-goer).

A colossus of the global running scene, Jornet is a multiple winner of the high-altitude Skyrunner World Series and has triumphed in the most punishing ultra-endurance races in the world, including the Western States 100, the Hardrock Hundred Mile Endurance Run and the Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc. In the past five years his ‘Summits of My Life’ project has seen him complete ‘Fastest Known Time’ speed records for running up peaks like Mont Blanc, Denali and the Matterhorn and he is hoping to run up Mount Everest, the highest peak on Earth, without oxygen or porters later this year. Jornet’s ability to shatter records and push the boundaries of human stamina has turned him into an inspirational icon for recreational runners around the world: he now has 225,000 Twitter followers – more than ultrarunning legends Dean Karnazes and Scott Jurek and 2016 Olympic marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge combined. Although no rival can catch Jornet, every runner can learn from him.

About Men's Running

By the time you read this, the spring race season will be well and truly underway and those of you who have trained for a specific event will hopefully have seen the fruits of your labours in PBs and long-held goals achieved.
Once you’ve completed a big event it’s understandable to want to take a few days off before running again. But sometimes those days can become weeks, the weeks months, and before you know it you’re no longer on talking terms with your trainers.
To stop that from happening, we take a look at the opportunities open to runners who find themselves with all the fitness but not the focus. One obvious path is to take your running abroad. As any seasoned traveller will tell you, the best way to explore a location is by foot and that certainly proved to be the case for our writer, Simon, who decided to combine his passion for running with a life-long ambition to visit Cuba (page 34).
If you fancy something closer to home you can utilise the very powerful bit of tech on your wrist to create some new training goals (page 48), or follow our expert advice on how to make the move from tarmac to trail (page 23). Or, if you’re already au fait with off-road, why not take a leaf out of Kilian Jornet’s book and run up Mount Everest (page 54)?
For more inspiration on what to do with your current peak condition head over to mensrunning.co.uk and follow us on Twitter and Facebook.